yes
Patricio Navia
(CON TINUEd FROm PAGE 18)
tinue their careers. Nor do they bring dents who run as independents. If re- the legislative agenda and by limit-
about a renewal of the political elite, election is impossible, independent ing government by decree and discre-
since many local political bosses turn presidents have no incentive to fulfill tionary power over spending. Thus,
to their relatives to fill their places their campaign promises. Even worse, Chávez will have the same ability as
or have stand-ins elected to occupy voters have no way to punish inde- a German chancellor to run for office
their seats until they are allowed to pendent presidents who are banned as many times as he likes, but his ex-
run again. from seeking re-election. ecutive powers will be limited just as
There are better mechanisms to The debate about presidential term they are in Germany.
promote accountability and respon- limits in Latin America is a remake Latin American democracies suf-
siveness. Ratherthan preventing peo- of the debate over presidentialism fer from lack of competition. Indi-
ple from running, reformers should and parliamentarism. Advocates of viduals or political parties tend to
promote institutional changes that the parliamentary system argued 20 promote monopolies and oligopolies
foster competition, lower entry years ago that Latin American democ- that undermine it. Political parties
thresholds for new challengers and racies organized on a presidential ba- favor high entry barriers to prevent
level the playing field in campaign sis are inherently unstable, since they new parties from challenging their
spending. In short, rather than pro- concentrate too much power in one oligopoly control. Individual politi-
hibiting a television series, regard- person. If that argument is accepted, cians in congress make it difficult for
less of its popularity, from going
into a new season, the best way to
promote better television is by facil-
itating competition among different
networks. Television series will sur-
vive if they can withstand competi-
tion from new challengers. By forcing
a television series off the air because
it has been on the air too long, we
will not automatically produce bet-
ter-quality television. The same ap-
plies to politics. allowing presidents to seek addi- newcomers to challenge them by en-
True, individual politicians are tional terms would clearly worsen actingcomplexandopaquecampaign
not the only actors interested in serv- the situation. finance rules—which in many cases
ing constituents well. Political par- Yet when you get lemons, you directly favor incumbents.
ties also have those incentives. In a might as well try to make lemon- The push to eliminate presiden-
healthy democracy with strong and ade. The drive in favor of allowing tial term limits should be seen as a
accountable parties, if individual of- unlimited re-election for presidents symptom of an ill-functioning de-
ficeholders are not allowed to run in Latin America should be used to mocracy, rather than its cause. It
for re-election, the political parties curtail the powers and attributions would be wiser, therefore, to fight
they represent have every incentive of presidents. When leaders such as the disease itself, not the symptoms.
to make sure their representatives Hugo Chávez press for unlimited Term-limited presidents already ex-
do a good job. Otherwise, the par- re-election, citing the examples of ercise too much power. Rather than
ties will be punished when voters France, the United Kingdom or Ger- replacing one overly powerful presi-
go to the polls. many, pro- democracy advocates dent with another equally powerful
Unfortunately, Latin American should respond by calling for consti- one, it would make more sense to
countries have notoriously weak tutional reforms that, while letting reduce the powers and attributions
partysystems. Thus, votersoften have presidents run for re-election indef- of the presidency regardless of who
few tools at their disposal to punish initely, also introduce better checks occupies the office. Let them run as
and reward incumbents other than and balances that actually under- often as they wish, but make races
the threat or benefit of re-election. mine the strength of the president, more competitive, level the playing
This is particularly true for presi- such as removing their control over field and reduce the powers and at-
tributions of the president.
Reformers should promote changes
that foster competition, lower entry
thresholds for new challengers and
level the playing field.
online:
The Debate Continues Read each author’s rebuttal at
www.americasquarterly.org/spring09hardtalkforum
Patricio Navia is a master teacher
at New York University.
